My blog

Syria (/ˈsɪriə/ ( listen) si-ree-ə; Arabic: سورية‎ , officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية‎ Al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah Arabic pronunciation , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Palestine to the southwest.

The name Syria formerly comprised the entire region of the Levant, while the modern state encompasses the site of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world,was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

The modern Syrian state was established as a French mandate and attained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949-1970. Bashar al-Assad is the current president, and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office since 1971. It's population is 23 million.